Animal communication

[Mollycat]

Thought I would share this, it won't be everyone's cup of tea but for the very open minded just a few minutes of our time may or may not do some good and can't do any harm. This is a guided animal communication I found on you-tube by Anna Breytenbach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnEJGjwomxI&t=11s

My own personal experience with Molly - she is an extremely complex twice-rescued girl, first time at 9 months from a chaotic noisy household, second time at around 6 years old from a relationship break-up, and she is now 12. For 6 months I believed she hated being touched but that's not the case, she loves affection but is so deeply traumatised it took her that long to trust me enough to touch her. I always felt she had not been properly socialised as a kitten and very likely experienced rough or inappropriate handling - perhaps small children who were not taught to be respectful. Specifically it was years before I was trusted to touch her ears even though she loves having them scrunched up and rubbed!

I tried this guided session which suggests you ask simply, What do you want to show me? and I got one single image of a tiny kitten perhaps a week or two old being lifted by a human hand and the mother cat in the background watching but not protective of the kitten, which was mewing and quite distressed.

Earlier this year Molly had radioiodine treatment, a whole lot of tests and an inpatient stay of 14 days. Needless to say she is not an easy cat to catch, does not settle and is not one for being handled especially by strangers, so I booked her in with an animal communicator and reiki practitioner. We had the communication session over Skype, she had a photograph of Molly but did not see her during the session. She also felt that Molly's mother had been inattentive and perhaps too young, and said that Molly would prefer a pet carrier she can see out of, which has proved to be true, and a lot more stuff.

The first reiki session was just before we were due to leave. Molly was under the bed. After the session she came out and had a huge cuddle with me for a few minutes, then I picked her up and put her in the carrier. She complained, of course, but she didn't struggle to get away as she normally would. While she was away I tried another communication session and this time got a clear picture of a metal bowl being dropped on a tiled floor, which staff were unable to confirm although they do use metal bowls and have a tiled floor in the radioiodine ward.

Just thought I'd put this out there for anyone willing to try it, especially as we have so many rescue companions on this forum, and I'd be interested in anyone's experiences either with professional practitioners or trying it yourself, either reiki or communication.

[Lilith]

Mollycat, this is fascinating. I have to say I'm a bit cynical about guided sessions and alternative (AND conventional!) everything; I'm an awkward git who hates being told what to do and I like to follow my own instincts, but although I'm a bit busy at the moment, I will try this with Mouse. She's very doddery; poor Molly is just zonked out with the heat.

Your poor Molly too. Ears! I've had my Molly for eight years and she too is only just beginning to trust me around stroking ears and face. But I have known cats, principally two who were born to my own girls and didn't have noisy conditions or anyone pulling them about, but did have traumatic births, who were very head-shy and wary of contact.

The most dramatic experience I had of this sort of animal communication was with a rescued kitten in 1982. I was shamefully inexperienced; the vet only supplied antibiotics for violent diarrohea/sickness and I'd never realised how dangerous dehydration is. (The problem was worms.) On little Oscar's first night with me, I just looked at him, and got a voice, loud and clear in my head, saying: 'I'm ill. I feel so very ill.' I hadn't understood at that point that there was anything wrong with him apart from an understandable nervousness.

On another occasion I was out walking with the dog I owned then, and she got interested in something in the brambles and undergrowth. Again I heard a voice: 'Don't kill me.'

Now if somebody told me something like this, and I hadn't experienced it for myself, I'd think, 'Oh dear. Keep on taking the tablets, love.' (Sorry about that joke. I'm personally against psychiatric meds. It's just one of the silly things you say when you're feeling flippant.)

But I have experienced it; it happens, I swear. Even something as simple as stroking an animal and knowing it doesn't 'feel right.'

I think we have to keep open minds.

I'll let you know what happens.

[Mollycat]

Wow Lilith did you see what was in that bush? Did Oscar make it? I have heard a voice once, my Misha, my feline soulmate. I think I've had enough now, please help me. But Misha is another story.

Anna is more guidance than instructions, you can always listen to get the basic idea then make it your own.

[Lilith]

I always presumed it was a rabbit, but of course it could have been just about anything. The dog was a large and very gentle Alsatian, and not a hunter - except when the cats had a mouse cornered in a thicket of nettles in the field behind the house, and Hannah lay down nearby and watched them at their 'work'. The silly mouse would have been safe enough, but it bolted and tried to hide beneath a large furry 'boulder.' Hannah. She whipped round and swallowed that poor mouse in one gulp!

No, Oscar didn't make it, I'm afraid. Dehydration. I agonised about why he'd died, until I read a newspaper report of an outbreak of infant gastro-enteritis in rural Africa, which had killed many babies until a doctor began to dose them with saline-glucose. Nowadays you can buy far more sophisticated preparations to replace electrolytes, but three years later, when I had a runny litter of Siamese and saw one little girl failing, I tried saline-glucose and it pulled her straight round. If only I'd known in time for Oscar!

Poor Misha, I'm sorry to hear x

[Mollycat]

So sorry for Oscar, we can only do what we can do though and sometimes our best can't achieve what we hope for.

One summer my gran's cat contracted typhus, in the heat of August in the south of France. He was set up with a bed in the bathroom, tiled floor and walls and in the basement, so quite cool. For weeks we, well mostly I, would sit with him syringing sugar water into his mouth one drop at a time, but my enduring memory (other than his big loving eyes gazing up at me) was how we would find him having dragged himself across two feet of floor and somehow tipped his water bowl over any lying there in the puddle. Miraculously he did pull through.

Feel bad for laughing at the poor little mouse!

[Ruth B]

I decided to leave this thread until i could listen to the video and read it all properly with out my OH watching over my shoulder, I'm far more open minded about this type of thing than he is.

I watch the video, did as was told and focused on Tiggy, but got nowhere, she wasn't with me, I had no idea where she was and somehow i didn't feel like I had connected. I started reading what you pair had said and half way through, who should come and jump on my desk, but Tiggy, just coincidence or did she hear me calling to her?

It always gets me when people try and judge an animals ability to communicate by how many of our words they can understand, dogs frequently come out on top, but in my mind communication is two way, how well can the dogs tell the owners what they are feeling or wanting, my cats leave me in no doubt when they want something. Just after I had started polytechnic my Mum let me know that one of the family's cats had been run over, the body was found on the neighbour's drive, it looked like the neighbour had pulled in and Murphy had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was hit. First thing that morning, before she would have her breakfast, one of the other cats, Shelly, was doing what can only be described as a Lassie impression, when my Mum started to follow her she lead her straight around to next door and to where Murphy lay, it was just as if she had to let my Mum know what had happened before she could settle for the day. I'm sure the neighbours would have been around later that morning when they were sure my parents were up and about, but Shelly had to let my Mum know straight off.

I also have had a lot to do with horses in my younger days, and one of instructors was a great believer in Monty Roberts, one of the early horse whisperers, what she passed on to me about his methods made a lot of sense, it's all about watching horses interact together and mimicking it, you basically learn to speak horse as opposed to a horse having to learn human. I always cringe when I see someone pat a horse, it is just so common and the normal way of praising them, however if you look at the palm of your hand it is vaguely horseshoe shaped, so when you pat a horse, particularly a very enthusiastic hard pat, it is very similar to a horse being kicked by another horse, not something they do to say how much they like you and how well you have done. Instead I always scratch them on the neck by the mane, just as they do when they are happily relaxing together in a field, they will stand each mouthing the others neck. I've since put what I learn from there into practice with cats, watching them together and learning how they react to each other and try to imitate it when I need to get a message across. If too many people see me stalking down the garden glaring at the intruding cat and hissing at it, or biting a cats neck when he tries to get overbearing I could see me getting locked up one day in a nice white jacket, but as far as the animals go, I get my point across.

I might try the communication method more when I am with one of my cats and we are both nice and relaxed, I'm more than happy to listen to ideas and learn from them, but often find my own way of doing things.

[Mollycat]

Interesting, Ruth, I love Monty Roberts and I've also been very inspired by him to help Molly. I've always 'felt' cats really have more in common with horses than any other of our animals, oddly. And yet the cat is our only companion that isn't a pack animal, plus a horse is a prey animal and the cat is a hunter!

My OH is also cynical about this kind of thing. But then my dad was too, and yet after he passed a guy I had worked with but didn't know very well was developing his mediumship skills and needed practice, so I invited him to do a session for me. My dad completely dominated the hour, Ian said he was pushing everyone else out of the way saying no, this is my time and I have something to say. For me the proof was the first thing Ian said - that my dad said, The blue light that you see sometimes, that's me. Well I had been seeing a blue light, and others had seen it with me too, ever since my dad had been really ill, but I an had no way of knowing about it. Towards the end of the session Ian was given a taste of celery, which my dad loved, but Ian hated and said so - well then he was hit with one thing after the other that he hated! It was as if my dad had just discovered that this was all quite real and he was having all the fun he could with his new powers.

[Ruth B]

My Dad wouldn't have time for anything like it, he was very much in the physical world, my Mum on the other hand was more open minded like me. I am in no doubt that there are good mediums and spiritualists out there, but I am also well aware that there are a lot of frauds as well. I've never felt the need to go to one, everything that needed to be said was said before both my parents passed away. My Father had declined very quickly over the final 6 months so we all knew what was coming it was just a matter of when. After he died all I felt was relief that it was over, which made me feel really bad until i realised I had actually grieved for him while he was still alive. I would visit him and hen spend the evening in tears, the person stuck in a hospital bed in what used to be their dining room was not the Father I knew even though i knew he was still my Father. My Mother was in a lot of pain for the last year or two and had a bad reaction to opiates, she had also had DVT so that took Aspirin and Ibuprofen out of the options, she was pretty much left with Paracetamol which did nothing to relieve the pain, so while her passing was more unexpected, it was again a relief to know she was no longer in pain. Where ever they are now I'm happy to let them be, i'm also sure if either wanted to make contact they would find away.

Back vaguely to the main subject, one thing that horse and cats, and a lot of other animals, have in common is that they aren't sycophantic. Dogs have a predisposition to please their pack leader which in my opinion has been overly bred for, leading to a lot of dogs being overly in your face friendly. Horses understand the safety in numbers idea so don't like being entirely alone, and while they often want to please I think their size has meant they have been bred to be more docile and trained to not be a danger to us. Ironically the best dogs i have know have all been working, or ex-working dogs, so again it was down to how they were trained. Cats are considered loners but they are very adaptable and can quite easily adjust to living with others, you only have to see a mature feral colony and how they interact to see that they aren't entirely loners anymore. If I had the space and money i would have a house and garden full of different animals.

[Mollycat]

I would go so far as to say since becoming pets some extreme breeds have been ruined and I struggle to see much aesthetic beauty left in some of the most overengineered breeds now. I just hope cats don't go the same way. I was horrified to watch how my Raggie struggles to clean his fur, especially his bib where it's too long to get off the end of his tongue. And his senses and reactions have suffered, his sight and hearing and sense of smell are all really quite poor compared to a naturally selected moggy.

Yes I agree cats are very adaptable and feral colonies are the perfect example, but they don't have a join and leave membership. Cats grow up in the colony with more or less related family members. And then there are the street cats, that aren't exactly a colony but a large population of unowned cats roaming free and tolerating each other so well for sharing resources. But not all can have another cat introduced to the household and we should respect that. My previous multicat household was organically added to with resident cats accepting a new walk-in (and rejecting many other attempts) and my current one was due to need and demand by the first arrival, who had been used to living in sight and calling and smelling distance of others all his life. He was so stressed alone I had to find him a friend. She on the other hand tolerates him and I think secretly enjoys the company, but I wouldn't feel the need to get her another companion when he goes. The idea that cats must have company is simply not true.

[Ruth B]

I have to agree with you am horrified when i see what they have done to some breeds, mainly dogs, and hope that other animals aren't forced along similar lines, I admit I would never want a Munchkin or some Persians or other very flat faced cats. Horse breeds fortunately tend to have resulted either from where they were located, as in the Shetland, or due to the work they carried out such as the Fell Pony. Even so there are problems, I remember a pony at the stables I had a horse on loan at, a Welsh Section B ride and drive pony, a pedigree as long as your arm and a list of problems to match.

Your comment about Ragdolls and bib washing definitely brings back memories of Blue's struggles, he could just about get his head back far enough to reach the end of the fur. However we never noticed a problem with his sight or hearing, except in his later years he didn't seem quite as concerned about fireworks and other loud bangs. His instincts were also still intact. There was a time when Tiggy had brought a small bird in and had it in the dining room, unharmed. I grabbed her while my OH got the back door open and started to herd the bird out, I think it was still young as it seemed to prefer to run rather than fly even though it seemed able to in short bursts. Blue had seen the open door and was just thinking of coming in as my OH got the bird to the door, he couldn't see Blue where as I could, but holding Tiggy couldn't do anything but call out. It didn't matter the bird made a bit for freedom right in front of Blue, you could almost see the unused wiring in Blue's brain spring into life, but a bit slow and grindy, he knew what a bird was and what a cat should do with one that runs in front of him, but his reflexes weren't honed by years of hunting. The bird got away, Blue got brought inside and given a big fuss. Maybe treating him like a long haired moggy made a bit of a difference, he was allowed to be a cat not just a pampered pet, yes he need a bit of help with his fur, but not as much as I would have thought.

[Mollycat]

So true, a cat is a cat and pedigree means nothing to them. Boo would love to go explore but my attempts with the harness proved futile. I took him on because I don't agree with indoor cats but he was being rehomed as an indoor and as that's all I have to offer it seemed ideal. The second is a moggy but was rehomed as indoor because she had the opportunity to go out and never took it in 5 years. Later I learned that her outdoors opportunity involved a driveway, which means it was roadside, so now I'm not surprised she never ventured. Perhaps if she had a secluded back garden she might enjoy it, in fact I think she would love it. Sadly I am unlikely to be able to offer one in their lifetimes. At least I provide grass, which is more than most indoor kitties get, but that's no real consolation for the joy they could have if things were different.

[lilynmitz]

I've tried learning to "speak cat", basically mimicking the way they communicate with each other; communication is a two way thing, and while they learn some of our language (at least body language and tone of voice), I feel we can both gain so much more by us doing the same for them. We need to read their body language, and replicate how they communicate with each other. My dear little boy Ziggy loved head rubs and nose touches with me, and if I lay on the floor, he would often flop down with me, and this was such a big deal as he was terrified of nearly everyone and everything. We lost him very young to a spinal embollism, but our other cat Elsie knew there was something wrong as a few days before he died she suddenly started head-washing him, which she had never done before.

Then when we got Toby after we lost little Zig, Elsie, who adores other cats, went nuts attacking him for two weeks. Toby is a total sweetie (if a nutcase) and was bewildered by her behaviour, as were we, despite Toby making all the right moves to say "I want to be friends". Eventually on the advice of others I tried an animal communicator. I'm ashamed to say I was very skeptical but out of desperation I was willing to give it a go.

She was brilliant. I learnt so much about Elsie, and through Elsie I learnt about little Zig, as well as our new idiot Toby, things that were very specific to these cats and which couldn't possibly have been just a lucky guess. It's really deepened my relationship with Elsie - I had always thought she was a bit dim, but now I realise she's actually a very wise and gentle cat, who just doesn't demand much from life, just to be safe and to give and receive love. Through Elsie, she helped us to help Toby with his issues - Elsie told us that Toby just thinks he's a naughty cat. He's not naughty, he's just very silly. He went into rescue at 11 months old, I suspect because his previous owner couldn't cope with his bonkers behaviour and I suspect she spent half her time shouting at him, hence why he thinks he's naughty and struggles to receive affection. He is an absolute handful, but it's not bad behaviour, he's just constantly curious, joyful and exuberant. Slowly he's learning that we love him and accept his daft behaviour for the joyfullness it really is, and he is beginning to let us fuss him. A year in and he will now sit on my lap from time to time (but only late at night when I'm on the loo! ...... it's a start! ) and will now sometimes let me head rub him and touch noses, and he's licked my hand a few times too. It's tough when they're taught the wrong thing right from the start, but we're getting there. It's so rewarding to see them grow in confidence and deepening their relationship with us.

I will try the link in Mollycat's first post, I'd like to know more about this.

PS - my mother's cousin was very open to communicating with those who have passed on and had quite a few unsolicited experiences of it. My father was as skeptical as they come, and pretty much atheist. But shortly after he died (around 23 years ago), she came to visit and while in the shower my father came to her and asked her to tell Mum he was still with us. She couldn't pluck up the courage to tell Mum, as she wasn't sure how she would take it, but many years later she told me, and eventually I told Mum. Mum wasn't sure what to make of it either, but one thing that really rang true was that after a lifetime of not believing in life after death, Dad would have been absolutely desperate to tell us he'd been wrong, and this was the only way he thought he would get through. And I'd always had a strong feeling that Dad is still looking after us, and so had Mum, and now I reckon he is.

[Mollycat]

Funny you should revive this thread just as I sit down having collected Boocat from his second brush with Death in two months. I had a session with him in the early hours of this morning, while he was in on a drip getting his fever down. It was faint but I felt pains in all the places Boo is known to have problems, plus my head felt very heavy and a pain down the back left side of my neck, and a real deep heavy weariness. The three of us agreed his next crisis will be the final one, and in all honesty fresh back from the vets it looks as though he agrees with that too.

[lilynmitz]

He couldn’t have asked any more from you, he’s so lucky to have someone who understands him so well, particularly at this difficult stage in his life. I hope knowing this brings both of you peace. Xx